FirstLife by Gena Showalter

467 pages

Okay...

I love dystopian. It is my favorite genre, so I will always give them a shot.

This book, however, is sci-fi first and foremost. Which is fine, but not what I was expecting. Following that, it was also probably one of the most boring reads. I am really trying to not roast this book entirely, because the idea was a cool one. 

Basically, the life you live when you are alive leads up to your real life, which starts when you die. You get to decide when you turn 16 (that's so young, to choose where you spend forever ), what realm you would like to reside in. The choices are Troika or Myriad. Then, if you can't decide or you wish to be unsigned, you go to Prynne, which is delightfully referred to as the Asylum till the age of 18. Now, while you are in Prynne, if they think you are important enough, they send in a undercover recruiter to persuade you to join. That's the general plot. 

Spoilers ahead...

The book spent the first 260-something pages of the main girl Tenley playing will she, won't she in Prynne on which realm. I felt like I could have skipped those pages and been just fine. Then Tenley gets a new female cellmate, Bow, who is actually an undercover recruit. Then, to confuse you more, Bow is actually a male who is wearing a shell posing as a female. Which is fine, and I thought it was a smart way to bring in a new character, but the way it was done was just so quick and almost " oh btw Bows a Male named Archer" ... uhm ok? 

All in all, my opinion is 3 stars and skip the first 200-ish pages.